Black screen with fixed white underscore

Hello, I'm new here on this forum, even as a reader. I am not a fluent English speaker but I'll try to do my best to state clearly my problem.

I've got some issues with my laptop which can't boot lately. The issue I'm facing is not really new. It lasts for months. But I've always managed to boot it up with perseverance with cycle of power on / power off until the Samsung logo shows up (sometimes it took me minutes or several hours before being able to boot it). But these last days I wasn't able to boot it again at all.


Symptoms:

There are several paths when I power the laptop on, some more frequent than others:

• when it can't boot (most of the time):
  • it shows directly a black screen (backlighted) with a fixed white underscore (most of the time). Blue LEDs are on. The fan is spinning for 1 second normally (most of the time) or loudly (less frequent). I can power if off easily by just pushing the power button (all of the time). No BIOS access. In rare times I can access to these features :
    • Decrease / Increase the screen luminosity (using Fn + F2 or F3 keys)
    • Reboot with Ctrl + Alt + Del
  • screen stays black with no backlighting (less frequent). Blue LEDs are on. I can power if off easily by just pushing the power button (most of the time). But other times, I have to power if off the hard way by pushing the button longer (less frequent).
• when it can boot (less frequent, which is not the case lately): Samsung's logo shows up, then go to the bootloader, and so on… when I do reboot the system normally with the OS, it does boot normally.

Laptop characteristics:

Bought on February or March 2013 with only 1-year warranty. So it doesn't have one anymore.

The laptop model is an NP350E7C-S07FR: http://www.samsung.com/fr/support/model/NP350E7C-S07FR. Windows 8 pre-installed + Intel Core i5-3210M 2.5 GHz CPU + 750G HDD + 6G (3+3) RAM + Intel graphics builtin + ATI Radeon HD7670M


OS history:

I have installed different OS through the years. I am not sure if this is going to be relevant here but just for the record:

• Windows 8.1 clean install (with UEFI): (not upgrading from 8) and got nothing wrong. It was mostly to get rid of bloatware.
• Linux Mint (with UEFI): I have wipe out all the disk before installing it, so there is no recovery partition or stuff like that on it anymore. I didn't intend to go back to Windows.
• Arch Linux (with UEFI): It is my current OS for 9 months at least.

Current BIOS state:

• UEFI: enabled
• SecureBoot: not enabled (I guess)
• Fast Boot: can't say (I don't even remember if there is such option in my BIOS).
• BIOS firmware version: it has never been updated if my memory is good (even when I was on Windows)
• BIOS Password: never have one

What I have already tested:

- RAM: It doesn't seem related to RAM. I have tested all combinations (except without any RAM). Everything is the same. Still a black screen with fixed white underscore.

- Clear CMOS: doesn't change anything. My CMOS is similar to the one in this video so I've did the same:

- plug HDMI to my TV: the TV doesn't detect the PC at all. It's just like nothing was plugged. I have already test another PC which doesn't have any problem, and HDMI works fine.

- AC power plugs only OR battery only OR with both: doesn't change anything


Similar problem:

I have found someone on a french forum having a similar issue:
http://www.developpez.net/forums/d1...ance/ordinateurs/ecran-noir-tiret-blanc-fixe/

He doesn't seem to have use Linux at all. So maybe it's not related to an OS-specific problem.

Here's the translation:

"Title: Black screen with white dash

Hello all,
I'm leaving it to you to elucidate a laptop problem broken by my daughter.
I can't find any answer on the failure origin despite my research on the forums (except answers with blinking white underscore).
______________________________
Laptop Samsung NP350V5C-S06FR

Windows 8 x64
CPU Core i3 3110M 2.4 GHz
Chipset HM76 Express
RAM 6 Go (4+2) DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
______________________________
BEFORE THE FAILURE: (according to her)

Sometimes black screen with white dash during boot
followed by a screen with parameters (?), closed with Esc key
General slowdown after access to streaming site (lol!)
Normal restart after boot.
After reinstall of partition factory, black screen issue unresolved.

______________________________
THE FAILURE:

BLACK SCREEN FIXED WHITE DASH top left standing
(AC with or without battery, single battery).
BIOS: no more access (F2)
KEYS: No more reactions with F* keys, neither Del or Esc, neither Fn+F3 (waking up from sleep), Ctrl+Alt+Del
DVD PLAYER: running, but you can not run CD (repair or new reinstall).
HARD DISK: spinning (noise). Same thing with another HDD (with a clean Windows 7 x64)
FAN: running
RAM: inverted strips or separately: same result. If both are removed, black screen without white dash
BEEP: none
LIGHTS:
- Common HDD / DVD Drive: blinking briefly 2 times when powering on.
- Power: Lights on startup, no longer indicates the sleeping mode (blinking).
WARRANTY: not anymore. 1-year warranty, and got the issue after 1.5 year
"

 

I would suspect either the hard drive or the boot files on it. A dying hard drive can cause erratic access and system slowdowns. If the BIOS can't find a bootable drive it would give an error message but if it can find a bootable drive but can't load the files it could be stuck at the blinking cursor.

Find the hard drive's brand and then look on the manufacturer's website for a diagnostic utility that you can load onto a USB drive or CD. Then boot that utility and let it check the health of the hard drive. Depending on how your system is configured you may need to select the USB / optical drive as the boot device. One of the F keys (usually F12) should offer a one-time boot menu or you may need to change the boot order in the BIOS. Alternatively, remove the hard drive from this computer and put it in an adapter connected to another computer on which you can run dun the diagnostics utility.

If the hard drive's health is OK then my next step wuld be to re-write the boot files in case something is corrupted.

John

 

I fixed a computer recently that had similar problems and it was a failed hard drive - getting the data off of it took forever... I had a feeling it was this so popped my HDD with Windows from another (Intel) system into it and it booted up without issue.

The fact you can only intermittently access the BIOS (And when you can there are bits missing) would suggest that it's more than just a failed hard drive - diagnostic software is probably worth a shot. If you can get data from it and haven't backed up lately then it's worth the time to back it up now - just in case.

 

Thank you guys for your replies.

I have performed some tests on the HDD by plugging it to another laptop (Ubuntu 14.04 LTS) with an USB adapter. HDD seems to have some problems according to it. Don't know if it's serious or not though. So I've backup all of my data just like you advised.

Tests:

• long SMART test (smartctl -t long /dev/sdb). Results: http://sprunge.us/HYVc

• Filesystem checks:
  • for root partition "btrfs check". Results: http://sprunge.us/ATVY

• • for UEFI boot partition: fsck.vfat. Results: http://sprunge.us/TEJM

Got some issues but seems to be fixed now
​

After these tests, I've remount the disk on the laptop. And the results are the same. Still a black screen with white underscore and no Samsung logo showing up at all.

And without an HDD at all on the laptop, I've got the exact same issue.

_______________

At the first place, I didn't think that the problem was related to the HDD. Seemed to be more a BIOS issue to me since the Samsung logo don't show up at all (I wasn't very clear about this statement on my first post, sorry about that).

Just in case, here is a picture of the black screen in question that directly appears when I power on the laptop:




Another thing: I've read a little bit on this forum about the UEFI-related bricked issue. I don't know if the symptoms are alike with my laptop issues. I don't remember exactly when was the first time I've faced this issue. But I admit that I've underestimated the problem since I've always managed to boot the laptop except these last days.

If somehow I can manage to boot the laptop, I will try to update the BIOS.

 

The SMART report does suggest that the drive is on its way out.

However, the position of the white dot on the black screen is not where I would expect it to be (ie top left corner) for a confused computer so I am wondering if UEFI has created problems. I agree that if you can get the computer to boot then updating the BIOS would be a wise move. If you have Windows running then use the BIOSupdate.exe program (see the sticky list at the top of this forum for a link to the BIOS Update thread).

I would also note that I think that the Series 3 notebooks use a different BIOS family from the Series 7, 8 and 9 so some of the identified fixes for BIOS / UEFI-related problems may not work.

John

 

I've managed to boot the laptop again (finally!) with perseverance.

Using another laptop, I've created a WinPE x64 image (Windows 10 version) with the BIOSUpdate.exe file integrated and wrote it on a USB key. The Samsung laptop boots fine the USB image. But when I'm trying to run BIOSUpdate.exe, it's complaining with this error: "the subsystem needed to support the image type is not present". Don't know what might be missing in the image.So I may install a Windows 8.1 or 10 on an external drive (if it's possible) and try this instead.

But before trying anything else, I'd rather prefer waiting for your advices. I've never flashed a BIOS so far.

I know that this might get things worse. But since the laptop state right now, it may worth to try.

 

I had the same problem ages back and it was either the 32bit subsystem that was missing or damaged (WoW64 I recall it was called) from the installation. I ended up reinstalling and the problem resolved itself.

You can use WinToUSB to create a bootable and mobile Windows install. The GUI is fairly easy to use and depending on the speed of the drive, shouldn't take too long.

 

I am unsure whether a bootable flash drive will provide the environment to download a BIOS update file but the BIOS update program should be able to read the current BIOS number which is in the form Pnnxxx where nn is a two digith number (revision number) and xxx is a three letter BIOS identifier, eg P02ABZ. If you can get into the BIOS setup then you can read this directly. Once you have the BIOS identifier then you can hunt Samsung's BIOS server for a newer version. This process is explained in other threads (see the Sticky List) but this post may be particularly relevant.

Once you have the actual BIOS file (name starting with ITEM_) then you should be able to run this in your bootable Windows environment.

John

 

Hello, I'm back.

I've performed what you advised. And everything is working fine now : the Samsung's logo always shows up and the laptop boots fine.
The BIOS update from P05ABE to P09ABE did the trick.

Just in case (since I've reset my CMOS settings days ago using hardware manipulation), I have disabled again SecureBoot, FastBoot and I've switched to CSM (BIOS) instead of UEFI.

Thank you all. Hope this thread could help someone else facing that kind of problem.

 

Thank you for the good news.

Can you please clarify the method used for the BIOS update since I recall you were running Linux?

But also recheck the hard drive's health in case there is also a problem there which contributed to the overall problem.

John

 

There are indeed ways of flashing BIOS from Linux as documented here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux. But I didn't try any of these. I was more confident to use Windows to perform such sensitive operation.

The hardest part was really to get the laptop to boot again in the first place. I had to power on / power off hundred of times before getting the Samsung's logo. And when it did, the rest went pretty well:

I have installed Windows (10 x64 MSDN iso) on an external HDD using WinUSB as advised by bennni. For that effect, I'd used another laptop which already has Windows installed. I'd removed the internal HDD in order to boot the external HDD using USB on the Samsung laptop and finished the configuration. Then downloaded and run the BIOSUpdate.exe file in order to download the BIOS firmware exe file. Double checked that it was the good firmware as you (John) suggested in another thread (last 3 characters was the same). Installed it, wait for it to finished, and then it automatically rebooted. And the problem got fixed.

Since I have reinstalled the system (Arch Linux) from scratch. I could have just format the /boot partition and reinstalled the bootloader since I've switched from UEFI to BIOS / CSM. But I'd prefer get back with a clean system.


The real issue was due to me not updating the BIOS at all. I remembered a friend of mine had a bad experience from this on a desktop PC long time ago (about 10 years ago). And it canceled his warranty. And since I became suspiscious (and I still am) with that kind of sensitive operation. I will only do this when necessary, and in that case it really was.



About the HDD problem I think it was independent of the BIOS firmware's.
But there are sure some problems on the HDD. For now, there are no sensitive data on it. I will wait some times, will investigate more time to decode the error messages and may change the HDD.

I just forgot to precise that I didn't experience any system slowdown before (but the person that got a similar problem on the french forum "developpez.net" did). So there might be a little confusion about that. I should have make two posts (on the same thread) in order to better differentiate the issue I was facing, and a similar problem that looks in some ways but not every ways.

 

Glad you got it sorted and that my suggestion was of help to you. Best of luck with the HDD - I agree that keeping an eye on it is worth doing.